In Case You Missed It: Iran Blocks Facebook, University Health Care Hacked and Other Security News

More than 160,000 current and former Berkeley and Mills College student health records may have been compromised due to a data breach.

Censorship

Iran Lifts Block on Facebook Access

With Iran's June 12th election date quickly approaching, presidential candidates were recently deprived of the social networking Web site Facebook.Since half the population was born since 1979, and since the reform candidate has been using Facebook to reach young voters, the cutoff of the site and later restoration was seen as another arbitrary in Iran's convoluted election process.

Hacking

Hackers Break into Berkeley Health Records

The University of California at Berkeley recently announced that personal health information of 160,000 current and former Berkeley and Mills College students may have been compromised due to a data breach. Overseas hackers gained access to restricted computer databases in the campus health-services center and during a six-month period may have taken information related to health-insurance coverage, medical information, medical-record numbers and Social Security numbers. Victims are urged to visit the campus Web site for information updates and place a fraud alert on their credit-reporting accounts.

Over 13 Million P2P Files Breached in the Past Year

In a study conducted by Tiversa, 13,185,252 files were breached on P2P file-sharing networks within a 12-month period. This data shows that P2P file-sharing is not effectively being addressed by the security protocols of companies and government agencies, said the study.

Transparency

Vermont Passes New Healthcare Law

Vermont has passed a new law that will require public disclosure of all payments made by drug and device makers to any health care provider who writes prescriptions for these products. The law will also ban nearly all gifts given by the health companies to healthcare providers, such as free meals. While several other states have enacted similar legislation, Vermont's version is believed to be the most stringent thus far, and may shed new light on the connection between industry marketing and the cost of healthcare. The law is scheduled to take effect on July 1.